Executives of NHS trusts beat the pay squeeze

Chief executives of NHS trusts had pay rises averaging 6.6% in 1993–4, at a time when the government imposed a limit of 1.5% on the increase in the pay bill in the public sector. But last week the government defended managerial salaries by comparing them with salaries twice as high in the private sector, and the health secretary, Mrs Virginia Bottomley, said that the highest paid executives of trusts were doctors.

According to Incomes Data Services, which issued the figures, the top earner, receiving …